It's flash SAN marketing war: Fusion-io has expanded upwards from its PCIe server flash card base into networked flash SAN storage, taking on Violin Memory, Pure Storage and all the other all-flash array players via OEMs and system builders who combine Fusion's flash hardware and SAN software with server systems.
Fusion's ION …

COMMENTS

not really a SAN?

I mean if they can't get something basic such as full redundancy between a pair of DL370 servers, need to have at least the controller level redundancy, online firmware upgrades, etc. Doesn't really sound like a storage system, more like just a server with a buncha flash. I suppose you could get a pair of them and run software RAID between the two from upstream servers but sounds kinda hackish and not efficient.

Even if you don't have data management features like thin provisioning, you have to at least have some form of controller level availability, even if it's optional(with 3PAR it's not), if your going to call yourself a storage array.

Maybe if they took the concept and used one of those PCIe extender bus things that Dell came out with a while ago

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/12/dell_c410x_gpu_chassis/

put the fusion cards in something like that, figure out a way to connect it to two different servers simultaneously, with some sort of fail over or clustering. Even something really basic as active/passive.

looks like a cool product otherwise though.

For some perspective - the All SSD 3PAR P10k consumes 3 racks of equipment - vs this is 2U.

Hurry up

Re: Hurry up

You don't need to have Fusion-io cards to get speedy SAN access. My company, Texas Memory Systems, has been making fast Flash-based SANs for several years, and there are no Fusion-io cards or SAS/SATA SSDs inside.

Re: Hurry up

EMC chose Micron and LSI over TMS, Cisco chose Fusionio and LSI over TMS, and NetApp chose Fusionio, and TMS put itself up for sale back in December. What does that tell you about TMS? Hint: all you need to know about how irrelevant TMS is to the Flash conversation.